PHILADELPHIA — Perhaps divided by reality and hopeful optimism, Doug Collins devoted a chunk of the preseason to labeling his group as a “good shooting team.”

They’re only three games into their season, and it’s only November, but the 76ers have been anything but that. Ranking near the bottom of the league in a few critical offensive categories, the Sixers have looked flat during the first week of the season.

So maybe there’s something to be gained from a three-game getaway, which happens to coincide with the Sixers’ need to get away from the flaws in their game.

“I think it can make us or break us,” Jrue Holiday said of the Sixers’ road trip, which begins tonight in New Orleans. “I don’t think it’s going to break us because we are really close. But again, a road trip is like us against the world. We know we’re going into someone else’s gym and (they aren’t) fans of us. We have to go out there and really just get closer together.”

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While Holiday contends the Sixers (1-2) are a tight-knit team, they’ve played like a bunch of strangers.

They’re not shooting well, their .372 field-goal percentage ranking last in the NBA. They’re not scoring, either, their 85.3 points-per-game average putting them next to last in the league. They’re nabbing only 1.02 points-per-shot, which situates them 28th in the NBA.

Unsightly numbers, yes, but the Sixers aren’t ready to wave the white flag. Their fighting mentality goes back to something Holiday said the team has maintained since he joined the franchise in 2009. They hope they can use that to their advantage beginning tonight against the Hornets, and carrying them through Boston Friday and Toronto Saturday.

“Now it’s really ‘us against the world’ kind of being our motto since, I don’t know, since forever,” the point guard said. “We have some tough teams coming up. They’ve also made some changes, and we’re going to find out who’s aggressive. We have to come out and be more aggressive than them from the start.”

In an attempt to right their offensive wrongs, the Sixers don’t have too many options.

Jason Richardson, one of their free-agent acquisitions, was expected to be one of their top shooters, but he’s nursing a sprained left ankle and might miss the entire road trip. Dorell Wright, another long-range threat, ranks 130th out of 132 qualifying players with a .324 field-goal percentage. And Nick Young has scored 26 points on 34 attempts from the floor.

Of course, the Sixers’ shooting percentage takes a hit with the absence of center Andrew Bynum, whose proclivity for high-percentage shots like lay-ups and dunks would certainly boost their lagging statlines. But that’s where the Sixers are in the season’s early going.

If there’s one reassuring stat, it’s that Collins’ crew sits fourth in the league by averaging 47 total rebounds and 14 offensive boards per game. So at least they’re pulling down a good chunk of those clanged shots.

“Trying to get (road) wins is tough,” Wright said. “You don’t have that crowd behind you, getting you into the game, so you have to find it within the 15 guys in the locker room and the coaching staff. Your job is just to go out there and start out on the right foot, because they’ll have their crowd behind them.”